Mortgage Calculator | Bankrate (2024)

How to calculate your mortgage payments

Here’s how to use our mortgage calculator to easily estimate payments:

1. Enter your home price. In the Home price field, input the price of the home you’re buying (or the current value of your home if you’re refinancing).
2. Enter your down payment. In the Down payment field, input the amount of your down payment (if you're buying) or the amount of equity you have (if you're refinancing). You can input either a dollar amount or percentage.
3. Enter your loan term. In the Loan term field, enter the length of your loan — usually 30 years, but could be 20, 15 or 10.
4. Enter your interest rate. In the Interest rate field, input the rate you expect to pay or are currently paying. Our calculator defaults to the current average rate, but you can adjust this percentage.
5. Enter your ZIP code. In the ZIP code field, input your zip code.
6. Click Update.

Bankrate's calculator also estimates property taxes, homeowners insurance and homeowners association fees. You can edit these amounts, or even edit them to zero, as you're shopping for a loan.

In addition, the calculator allows you to input extra payments (under the “Amortization” tab). This can help you decide whether to prepay your mortgage and by how much.

Typical costs included in a mortgage payment

The major part of your mortgage payment is the principal and the interest. The principal is the amount you borrowed, while the interest is the sum you pay the lender for borrowing it. Your lender also might collect an extra amount every month to put into escrow, money that the lender (or servicer) then typically pays directly to the local property tax collector and to your insurance carrier.

Mortgage payment formula

For the mathematically inclined, here's a formula to help you calculate mortgage payments manually:

This formula can help you crunch the numbers to see how much house you can afford. Alternatively, you can use this mortgage calculator to help determine your budget.

Mortgage calculator terms explained

An online mortgage calculator can help you quickly and accurately predict your monthly mortgage payment with just a few pieces of information. It can also show you the total amount of interest you’ll pay over the life of your mortgage. To use this calculator, you’ll need the following information:

• Home price: This is the dollar amount you expect to pay for a home.
• Down payment: This is the portion of the home’s price you’re not financing with a mortgage. For many borrowers, this is as little as 3 percent.
• Loan term: This is the length of the mortgage repayment term, such as 30 years or 15 years.
• Interest rate: This is the interest rate you’ll pay for a new mortgage, whether you’re buying a home or refinancing your current loan.

How a mortgage calculator can help

Our mortgage calculator can help guide many of the decisions related to buying a home or refinancing your mortgage, such as:

• Whether you're spending more than you can afford: Use the calculator to see how much you’ll pay each month, including in homeowners insurance premiums and property taxes. This can help you determine if you’re stretching your homebuying budget too far, or paying too much in terms of debt-to-income (DTI ratio).
• Whether your budget allows for a shorter-term loan: Use the calculator to compare the monthly payments and total interest between a 10-, 15-, 20- or 30-year loan. Shorter-term loans come with lower interest rates, but higher monthly payments.
• Whether you should put more or less money down: Use the calculator to weigh different down payment scenarios and how that’ll affect how much you’ll borrow and pay.
• Whether you should pay off your mortgage early: Use the calculator to learn how extra payments can impact how quickly you’ll repay the loan and any interest savings.
• When you can get rid of mortgage insurance: Use the calculator’s amortization schedule to determine when you’ll hit 20 percent equity — the magic number you need on a conventional loan to request that your lender remove private mortgage insurance (PMI).

Deciding how much house you can afford

If you're not sure how much of your income should go toward housing, start with the 28/36 rule, which dictates you spend no more than 28 percent of your gross income on housing costs and no more than 36 percent of your gross income on overall debt, including housing costs.

Say Joe makes $60,000 a year. That's a gross monthly income of $5,000 a month. Twenty-eight percent of that equals $1,400. If Joe were to abide by the 28/36 rule, he’d spend no more than $1,400 on a mortgage payment each month.

How to lower your monthly mortgage payment

If the monthly payment you're seeing in our calculator looks a bit out of reach, you can try some tactics to reduce the hit. Play with a few of these variables:

• Choose a longer loan. With a longer term, your payment will be lower (but you'll pay more interest over the life of the loan).
• Spend less on the home. Borrowing less translates to a smaller monthly mortgage payment.
• Shop for a lower interest rate. Be aware, though, that some super-low rates require you to pay points, an upfront cost.
• Make a bigger down payment. This is another way to reduce the size of the loan.

Learn more: How to lower your mortgage payment

Next steps on getting a mortgage

A mortgage calculator is a springboard to help you estimate your monthly mortgage payment and understand what it includes. Once you have a good idea of your budget, you might move on to these next steps:

• Get a mortgage prequalification or preapproval.
• Shop for homes and make an offer.
• Apply for a mortgage.

Compare mortgage rates for different loan types

Mortgage calculator: Alternative uses

Most people use a mortgage calculator to estimate the payment on a new mortgage, but it can be used for other purposes, too.

Here are some other uses:

1. Planning topay off your mortgage early.

   Use the "Extra payments" functionality of Bankrate's mortgage calculator to find out how you can shorten your term and save more over the long-run by paying extra money toward your loan's principal. You can make these extra payments monthly, annually or even just one time.

   To calculate the savings, click the "Amortization / Payment Schedule" link and enter a hypothetical amount into one of the payment categories (monthly, yearly or one-time), then click "Apply Extra Payments" to see how much interest you'll end up paying and your new payoff date.

2. Decide if anARMis worth the risk.

   The lower initial interest rate of an adjustable-rate mortgage, or ARM, can be tempting. While an ARM may be appropriate for some borrowers, others may find that the lower initial interest rate won't cut their monthly payments as much as they think.

   To get an idea of how much you'll really save initially, try entering the ARM interest rate into the mortgage calculator, leaving the term as 30 years. Then, compare those payments to the payments you get when you enter the rate for a conventional 30-year fixed mortgage. Doing so may confirm your initial hopes about the benefits of an ARM -- or give you a reality check about whether the potential plusses of an ARM really outweigh the risks.

3. Find out when toget rid of private mortgage insurance.

   You can use the mortgage calculator to determine when you'll have 20 percent equity in your home. That's the magic number for requesting that a lender waive its private mortgage insurance requirement. If you put less than 20 percent down when you purchased the home, you'll need to pay an extra fee every month on top of your regular mortgage payment to offset the lender's risk. Once you have 20 percent equity, that fee goes away, which means more money in your pocket.

   Simply enter in the original amount of your mortgage and the date you closed, and click "Show Amortization Schedule." Then, multiply your original mortgage amount by 0.8 and match the result to the closest number on the far-right column of the amortization table to find out when you'll reach 20 percent equity.

Terms explained

Using an online mortgage calculator can help you quickly and accurately predict your monthly mortgage payment with just a few pieces of information. It can also show you the total amount of interest you"ll pay over the life of your mortgage. To use this calculator, you"ll need the following information:

Home price- This is the dollar amount you expect to pay for a home.

Down payment- The down payment is money you give to the home's seller. At least 20 percent down typically lets you avoid mortgage insurance.

Loan amount- If you're getting a mortgage to buy a new home, you can find this number by subtracting your down payment from the home's price. If you're refinancing, this number will be the outstanding balance on your mortgage.

Loan term (years)- This is the length of the mortgage you're considering. For example, if you're buying a home, you might choose a mortgage loan that lasts 30 years, which is the most common, as it allows for lower monthly payments by stretching the repayment period out over three decades. On the other hand, a homeowner who is refinancing may opt for a loan with a shorter repayment period, like 15 years. This is another common mortgage term that allows the borrower to save money by paying less total interest. However, monthly payments are higher on 15-year mortgages than 30-year ones, so it can be more of a stretch for the household budget, especially for first-time homebuyers.

Interest rate- Estimate the interest rate on a new mortgage by checking Bankrate'smortgage rate tablesfor your area. Once you have a projected rate (your real-life rate may be different depending on your overall financial and credit picture), you can plug it into the calculator.

Loan start date- Select the month, day and year when your mortgage payments will start.